Fan Expo News: ALPHA FLIGHT Ongoing, Brian Wood to Marvel

Marvel's panels Saturday at Fan Expo in Toronto brought at a few pieces of relevant news, including the announcements that the current Alpha Flight comic has been upgraded from a maxiseries to an ongoing, and word that acclaimed creator Brian Wood is returning to the publisher in 2012.
The current volume of Alpha Flight, from the creative team of co-writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente plus artist Dale Eaglesham, started in May with a Point One issue and was originally slated to be an 8-issue series. Given that the title is set in Canada and depicts the adventures of that country's premier superhero team, Fan Expo was a geographically appropriate location for the announcement that the book is sticking around indefinitely. The news was announced at the "Pint O' C.B." panel late Saturday afternoon, and confirmed by Marvel.com editorial director Ryan Penagos on his Twitter account.

Wood had been under DC exclusive contract since 2006, and had been writing DMZ and Northlanders for that company's mature readers imprint, Vertigo, plus DV8: Gods & Monsters for the now-defunct Wildstorm imprint. Some of his earliest industry exposure came at Marvel in 2000, when he co-wrote Generation X with Warren Ellis as part of the "Counter-X" initiative.
While the exact details on what Wood will be working on for Marvel were not revealed, based on the teaser found on Marvel.com, it certainly appears that the publisher at least wants us to think that it has something to do with Wolverine — the fact that the image debuted at the X-Men panel doesn't hurt speculation in that direction, either.

The Pint O' C.B. panel also brought word on what exactly the "Destroy!" image from earlier this week was teasing: A five-issue miniseries written by Van Lente and illustrated by Kyle Hotz (The Hood) titled Destroyers, starting in September and starring The Thing, She-Hulk, Karkas, A-Bomb, The Beast and Devil Dinosaur. Said Van Lente during the panel, "We find out what really killed the dinosaurs, and they're coming back for us."
(Jonathan Ore contributed to this report.)
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